Life of a Vong
by Onimiman
Summary: This is a snapshot of what a typical Yuuzhan Vong's day on Zonama Sekot would be to me.


Life of a Vong

Nom Anor woke up upon the rays of sunlight shooting through the unfiltered, open viewport of the quarters of his grashal. He rubbed his one eye before turning away from the blaring sunshine and swinging his legs out of his cot. He then wearily pushed himself to his feet and went into the organic refresher that all of the grashals on Zonama Sekot were given. As he was already naked, he stepped into the shower and spent a few minutes washing himself before stepping out, drying himself, and brushing his teeth with the living equivalent of a toothbrush afforded to him. This toothbrush oozed out mouth-rinse paste as he stroked the organic instrument across his mouth. When he was done, he set the toothbrush down and turned open the tap to the living sink before him where water began pouring out steadily. He picked up the cup, allowed water to flow into it, and when he saw that there was enough, he turned the tap off and ingested the water. Nom Anor rinsed it in his mouth for a moment before spitting it all out, where the paste-ridden water washed away down the sink's hole. He then pulled out a substantial string of organic flosstape from the living filament installed on the sink, flossed his teeth with the sink, then discarded it by dipping it down and releasing it into the sink's hole. He finished this oral hygiene routine off with some simple mouthwash from an organic bottle, rinsed the stuff around in his mouth for a few moments, and then spat it down the sink.

After he was done drying himself off, Nom Anor stepped out with a living towel wrapped around his waste. He then went to one of his organic cabinets, pulled out a pair of underwear that he slipped on along with an undershirt and a pair of shorts. He then looked up from the cabinet and spent a short moment looking at himself in the mirror, taking the time to make sure that he looked presentable for work today, before walking to his quarters' exit. Shutting the door behind him, he walked down the stairs that led to the living space of the grashal, where he met with the other three members of the grashal.

The first was Vuurok I'pan. A former Shamed One, now a member of the Extolled, Vuurok was the first Shamed One who Nom Anor ran across while he was on the run from the late Supreme Overlord Shimrra's forces for the disastrous Yuuzhan Vong defeat at Ebaq 9, which Nom Anor was held directly accountable for. Vuurok was responsible for leading Nom Anor to a cabal of Shamed Ones who were worshipping the Jedi, believing that they would carry them to their salvation from the elite castes' reign. From there, Nom Anor would use his experience among the Shamed Ones to fan out the flames of the _Jeedai_ heresy as Yu'shaa the Prophet. Nom Anor believed Vuurok himself to have been dead prior to his adoption of the guise of Yu'shaa; apparently, he managed to escape the wrath of the Yuuzhan Vong hunting party sent by Shimrra to exterminate heretics.

The second was Kunra. Kunra was also among the cabal of Shamed Ones who Nom Anor met thanks to Vuurok, but his survival was not called into question, for he helped Nom Anor with his façade as Yu'shaa. Serving as a lieutenant, Kunra, who was initially distrustful of Nom Anor on the day he stepped in with the Shamed Ones, proved extremely loyal to the false prophet later on, most notably when he helped stop the treacherous Shoon-mi Esh from assuming the guise of Yu'shaa. He didn't just restrain his loyalty to Nom Anor though; even after the false prophet temporarily abandoned the heresy that he helped inflame, Kunra remained true to that heresy to the end, never allowing for it to die down even in Yu'shaa's absence.

The third and final member of the grashal was the only non-Extolled aside from Nom Anor. And he happened to be Nas Choka, the final Warmaster of the Yuuzhan Vong who declared the war's end when he realized the futility of fighting on without their Supreme Overlord. With his cooperation with the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi Order, he helped assure the war was truly over by helping the two factions out with finding the remaining Yuuzhan Vong along the former invasion corridor in the galaxy and bringing them all back to Zonama Sekot, where they were shipped off to the Unknown Regions.

Nom Anor had been the latest addition. By the end of the war, he was thought dead, but in reality, he had made it out alive to live a life as a businessman on an obscure planet in the Outer Rim. However, a chance encounter with the Skywalker family a decade earlier resulted in his capture and sentence to this world. From then on, he had learned to live this humble life just as every other Yuuzhan Vong, particularly those of the former elite castes, learned to live by. Choka himself seemed perfectly fine working with members of the Extolled like Vuurok and Kunra. The fact that he was ten years behind every other Yuuzhan Vong on the planet in terms of settling down was a moot point; he had become comfortably ingrained as the rest of those who had accepted the Extolled as equals.

"You may all sit down," Vuurok said as the other three inhabitants of the grashal helped themselves to their seats in the dining table. "I will prepare breakfast immediately." With that, he disappeared into the grashal's kitchen.

And while Vuurok was accomplishing his task, the other three members decided to strike up a conversation, with Kunra being the one to bring up the subject of Bava.

"Did either of you hear what happened to Bava yesterday?" Kunra asked.

"Bava? What happened?" Nom Anor asked. The puzzled look on Choka's face mirrored Nom Anor's question.

Bava was a member of the Extolled who had frequently got into spats with the grashal of Sal Ghator. Ghator, a former subaltern of the warrior caste, was adamant against living with Shamed Ones, refusing to call them the Extolled, and had kept this stance for the two decades that had come to pass since the end of the war.

"Ghator finally did it," Kunra explained. "He and the members of his non-Extolled grashal went and killed Bava and his completely Extolled grashal."

"By Yun-Yuuzhan," Choka commented. "Did Sekot punish Ghator and his grashal mates?"

"Of course she did," Kunra answered. "They now inhabit some of the underground prison cells." Miles beneath the planet's surface were underground prison cells that Zonama's citizens, Ferroan, Bothan, and Yuuzhan Vong (both Extolled and non-Extolled) alike, were transported to for criminal transgressions that not even Sekot could have stopped.

"How long are they going to stay there?" Nom Anor asked.

"Twenty years," Kunra answered. "It serves them right anyway. Ghator and his cronies had it coming."

"He and his grashal mates refused to completely ingrain themselves here," Nom Anor said. "I am not sure why Sekot had not done it years ago. Now Bava and his grashal mates are dead."

"Well, not even a planetary consciousness is infallible in its decisions," Choka added.

"It could be worse," Kunra said. "I am surprised that no major riots from either the Extolled or non-Extolled have erupted because of this issue at all in the past twenty years. I still cannot believe that even after all this time, there are still people like Ghator who cannot forget about the society that died with Shimrra, move on, and just accept the Extolled as equals."

Choka shrugged. "Like you said, Kunra, it could be worse."

The conversation ended when Vuurok entered the living space with a tray of four bowls of food and an equal number of glasses containing an orange, nutritious, thirst-quenching drink called orange juice. Carefully, Vuurok set the tray down on the table before he sat down with his grashal mates and they all took their bowls and began eating and drinking as part of their breakfast.

A few minutes later, they were all done. They placed their empty bowls on the tray and Vuurok wordlessly took the tray back to the kitchen while the other three Yuuzhan Vong stood out of their seats and walked to the door. They slipped on their sandles just as Choka opened the door and he was the first one to walk out, followed shortly by Kunra and then Nom Anor. The three of them walked to the side so that they could tend to their garden as part of the chores provided to them by Zonama Sekot; Nom Anor and Choka would pull the weeds that would frequently plague the garden while Kunra would cultivate their vegetable stand for lunch and dinner.

Vuurok would be the last one out to join Kunra in his duty, but by the time he stepped to the door and slipped on his sandles, he looked up to find another Yuuzhan Vong blocking his path. Nom Anor, Kunra, and Choka all stopped what they were doing and looked to the figure in front of Vuurok.

"Harrar," Vuurok said. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Harrar was a former priest who defected to the side of the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi in the final year of the war before he had even arrived on Zonama Sekot with the late Nen Yim, Tahiri Veila, Corran Horn, and Nom Anor. Being the Yuuzhan Vong to stay longest on the planet, he was the first of his kind to reconnect to the Force; this had happened exactly ten years ago. Since then, thousands of Yuuzhan Vong were finding themselves reconnecting to the Force in droves, albeit at different, fluctuating rates that came to individual developments.

Usually, when this happened under Sekot's knowledge, someone like Harrar would come along and take those Yuuzhan Vong just reconnecting to the Force so that they can completely reconnect with it.

"It is time, Vuurok I'pan," Harrar said. "You must come with me; your reconnection to the Force is almost complete. With Sekot's help, you will feel the Force, the life, around you."

Vuurok smiled. He looked off to his grashal mates, who all gave tiny but sincere smiles and distinct nods. Vuurok then looked back to Harrar with an expectant look and said, "Very well. By your lead."

Harrar nodded, then turned and began leading Vuurok away before the latter closed the door behind him.

"How long do you think it will be before either of us will reconnect to the Force like Vuurok will?" Kunra asked as he pointed to himself, Nom Anor, and Choka.

"Of all four of us, yo will most likely be the next one to go, Kunra, considering that you were here longer than I was, as you claim" Choka commented off-handedly. "After you, I'll no doubt be the next. It may take a longer while before Nom achieves a reconnection though."

"Thank you for that reminder, Nas," Nom Anor replied sarcastically.

"Say, Nom, didn't you used to hate the Force?" Kunra asked.

"We all did," Nom Anor replied. "But now that we are all here, and given our time on Zonama and with each other, I think it is safe to say that whatever feelings we once had about the Force and the Jedi, they are irrelevant now. Considering all the happiness that it is causing, I have no doubt that reconnection to the Force will not be a bad idea."

"Yes, but what was interesting is that you hated the Force even though you did not believe in the gods," Choka said. Since they had all gotten to know each other in the past ten years, it was no secret to anyone in this grashal community that Nom Anor had been an atheist since before the invasion began. "Those of us who hated it until after Shimrra's death hated the Force because it was heresy to Yun'o. Why did you hate the Force then?"

Nom Anor shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess it must have had something to do with the personal feelings that I had with the Jedi at the time. Like I said, though, it does not matter now."

"Well, it was a curious matter nonetheless," Choka commented. "Well, let's get back to work." With that, he turned, bent down, and began pulling weeds. Nom Anor joined him shortly after, and Kunra resumed his duties of picking vegetables.

And all three of them were wondering when they would achieve a connection to the Force that Vuurok would soon experience.


End file.
